Upgrading Speakers...Your Advice Please (1 Viewer)

[JasonMilch]

Hello all:

I'm a longtime lurker around here and have learned a ton from you guys. I am about to move to a new condo and would like to take this opportunity to upgrade my speakers. The wife tells me I have a small speaker budget since we need new couches, tables, ... too, but I figure anything will be an upgrade from what I have now, a Sony SA-VE 335 5.1 setup. These sound OK to me but I know there is much better out there even on a small budget of less than 300. I figure I can keep the Sony sub which is adequate for me, so I really just need 5 speakers to go with a Panny SA-HE 100K (a good budget receiver in my mind). I mostly watch DVD's and Tivo if that makes any difference.

So my question is, which of these would you experts reccommend (or is there something else I should be considering):

Boston Acoustics Micro 80 system (can get these used in excellent condition from a local hi-fi shop)
Klipsch Quintet
Fluance AV-HTB
Fluance SX-HTB

Anything I'm missing?
Thanks.

Jason

 

[JeremyR]

I think the Klipsch Quintet's run in the neighborhood of $400. But maybe I'm wrong. If you're looking at the Quintet's... might I recommend a couple I prefer over them. The Paradigm Cinema series and the Athena Point 5 MKII


Though I'm not certain you were asking ME the question because I am far from an expert. I only know what my ears tell me.

 

[JasonMilch]

I'll check those out. the quintets can be had on ebay though for $100 a pair. Also, I hear good things about Fluance...anyone know much about these?

 

[JeremyR]

I don't know anything about fluance, other than the people who have them say they are a great value and sound great "for the money.". It's always that "for the money." that concerns me. I'm just very unsure about spending money on somethign I can't listen to first. A sub is probably a little different than a speaker. That's why I'm considering going teh HSU or SVS route for a sub, but speakers all have such an individual sound, and brands all have different sounds. I just am not big on the Klipsch sound, and I love the Paradigm sound. I'm not really at all familiar with Boston's though. The other nice thing about Paradigm, is that they only sell through smaller dealers, and those smaller dealers will almost always work with you on price. You can't normally get those big superstores to do that, and for sure I can't find anything at BB, or CC that even comes close to my Paradigm Titans, Atoms, and CC-170 for what I paid for them through my dealer.

 

[GaryAR]

Look into Omage... seriously. I've got a pair of AV-21's in my bedroom, and I can't get over how well these things do for 2-channel. At $100 a pair (and $100 for the matching center), they're an unbeatable deal in my book. Of course I had to do a lot of tweaking to mine to get them to the point they're at now, but it looks like Omage integrated most of the changes I've made into the new models. See this thread for more info:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forum...?s=&forumid=28

And some pictures can be found in my avsforum gallery:
http://gallery.avsforum.com/showgall...0&ppuser=33049

Here's a dealer that's selling them in the states:

http://www.midsouthcable.com/OmageAV-Select.htm
(no, i have no affiliation with them whatsoever)

Check out the tweeter & midrange driver... you'll certainly never see components like that in any other $100 speakers. Oh, and you can search Audiogon for some posts on them by other audiophiles.

-Gary

 

[JasonMilch]

thanks. i'll check out omage today. still wondering about fluance. nothing but good reviews on them but who knows if they're really any good?

 

[JeremyR]

I just don't know about fluance. There was a thread recently I saw, I believe it was on this board somewhere, where somebody did some in-depth looking at the fluance speaker brand. There were som accusations that they were manufactured by the same clowns that make the speakers sold by the "white van guys". Fluance denied that they were, at least according to the response he got from the talking head he got ahold of at Fluance, but the specs were absolutely identical some of the ones made by this company.. i think their name was goldsky or something like that. I've always believed if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. I'd avoid them, but it's entirely up to you.

 

[BryanZ]

How about the HSU Ventriloquist? It goes for $311 delivered.

 

[Leigh_M]

I think someone is selling Polk RM6700 in your price range in the "Hardware For Sale" area. I've heard very good things about these Polks.